Clap Boy!
by Mekakucity
Summary: They repeat their actions a hundred time a day, they've stopped reacting to the world around them, and they're hardly speaking, the People of the Land are acting oddly. They're acting like...mere NPCs. Plus, Rudy won't stop clapping. Bad dog!


He kept clapping. He just kept on smacking his hands together and smiling like the dork he was, and no matter how many times Isuzu called his name he wouldn't come. Stress was building in her chest as she watched him and as it grew, so did her anger. Once her short line of patience reached a dead end she ran up to him and slammed her fist against his skull. "Anybody in there!?" she yelled, throwing her hands onto her hips.

He kept clapping.

It didn't dawn on her until several minutes later that Rudy wasn't just trying to be an idiot, and that something was seriously wrong with him. At that moment, for the first time in weeks, she remembered that she was trapped inside of a video game. She remembered this, because the first thought that popped in her head was that Elder Tales was experiencing a bug. All games had bugs at times, perhaps an occasional hacker, and a bit of lagging depending on the quality of your computer and the speed of your internet.

Isuzu's computer was really just a dinky laptop that she had gotten on sell five years ago. This year, she had taken a knack to online gaming. Her friend, Mei, from school had been totally into Elder Tales at the time, and played the game non-stop everyday. Isuzu had never been much into playing video games, but she got to the point where she was so sick of hearing all the awesome details about Mei's guild and weapons that she finally broke down and bought a subscription to Elder Tales. Given how crappy her computer was, she was lucky to even get the game to play, and though the lag was terrible, she realized just how right her friend had been.

The week after Isuzu started playing; Mei lost interest and stopped playing due to the claim that she had better things to spend her money on. So, Isuzu played solo.

But now, she had a party and she had been in the middle of training with them, in a dungeon no less, when Rundelhaus Code froze in place, and began clapping. They were doomed. Minori had finally gotten the well pumping, and their team was working like a charm. They been beating monsters left and right, and were farther through the dungeon than ever before, though Isuzu was now seriously doubting that they'd get any farther.

"What's going on?" Minori asked running over. She had been surveying the battle, keeping watch over her teammates' HPs and calling out orders, but this obviously took precedence over that.

"I don't now!" Isuzu shouted, "He won't stop!"

In any other situation Rudy's insistent, clapping, smiling, and nodding might have been almost comical, but within the grasp of the gloomy dungeon it looked as if he was cheering on the monsters, rooting for them as they dug into Tohya.

Minori's usual calmness quickly faded away until it mirrored Isuzu's panic. "Stop!" she shouted, holding his wrists so that he couldn't clap. He seemingly used all his strength, to escape her grasp and smack his hands together once more.

Tohya had been doing a good job keeping the skeletons and skeleton archers away from his cluster of party members, but even with Serara's determined healing, he could only do so much. Soon enough, a group of skeletons surged towards Rudy and went on the attack. Completely oblivious to anything besides the imaginary play within the depths of his mind, he ignored the horrible pain he must be feeling and gave a standing ovation as his HP plummeted.

Isuzu warded off the skeletons that surrounded him, but more followed. "I'm sorry, Tohya!" she shouted, before beginning the Ode of the Timid. As it was supposed to, it made Isuzu, Minori, Serara, and most importantly, Rudy, seem little more than rocks to the eyes of the skeletons and their attention quickly drifted back to Tohya. He had a hard enough time handling the monsters that already swarmed around him, and Isuzu was certain that he wouldn't appreciate the added company, but it was really her only choice if she wanted to protect Rudy.

Minori rushed back to their side, but found herself able to do little more than watch. "We're going to have to run!" she called at the top of her lungs.

Isuzu nodded and grabbed Rudy's hand before he had the chance to grab his own hand for the five-hundredth time. He quickly forced her hand away and clapped once more. She felt like screaming as she thrust her arm around his waist and forced him to take a single step forward. This was impossible. Rudy did not want to move, and she felt like she was pushing a one ton elephant.

Tohya rushed over and came to the rescue. He swooped Rudy's body into his arms and began carrying him princess style. Normally Isuzu would have been on her knees laughing herself half to death at the sight of this, but she was too worried about really dying to do so now. She followed after the others, past skeletons and shadows, until they finally reached the light of the outside world. They were all out of breath and Tohya seemed beyond relieved to dump Rudy out of his arms and onto the ground like a sack of potatoes. Rudy quickly got to his feet once more, but proceeded with his signature applauding soon after.

His four teammates stood around him for awhile, finding themselves yet again without a clue about what they should do. "I'll get Maryele!" Minori shouted, snapping out of the trance that the others were still very much stuck in.

Isuzu shook her head to clear it as Minori ran off towards the beach to find the sunbathing cleric. This, of course, made the others more dazed than ever as they were left with nothing to do but wait for her to return. They waited for what seemed like an hour, and their heads were on the verge of exploding as Rudy's clapping seemed to resonate more and more with each swing of his skinny wrists.

Finally, Minori reappeared, with Maryele and Naotsugu trailing behind her. "What's going on?" Maryele asked, quiet clearly Minori hadn't filled her in on all the details yet, if any.

"When we were in the dungeon Rudy started clapping and now he won't stop! It's like…" Minori started, but she couldn't finish her sentence, none of them could.

Maryele stepped past the others so that she could get a bit closer to the blond in question. She eyed him carefully with an inquisitive look on her face that would have been reassuring, were there not a thin layer of nervous perspiration collecting on her forehead. "Rundelhaus," she whispered, her voice being swept away by the wind.

"Stand back," Naotsugu said, "I'll handle this." Maryele flashed him her inquisitive look, which was quickly becoming quizzical. Naotsugu ignored her speculation and took her place next to Rudy. He whispered something in the young boy's ear, which to be fair, could have quite possibly been his hopeless attempting at snapping Rudy out of his stupor, but now was really not the time to talk of panties. He stepped back and shrugged his shoulders, "Seems he's a closet pervert," he mumbled to himself.

Maryele had always prided herself on being able to do something. She wasn't one to give up or let others suffer, but at this point she felt as useless as Naotsugu. The children had come to her seeking help, and she was failing them. "Alright!" she said clapping her hands together, "I'll contact Shiroe." Minori's faced brightened at the thought of having her idol on the case and she nodded, giving her full support.

Maryele quickly reached Shiroe using her all-too-convenient telepathic abilities. Once she was ready to speak to him, she drifted away from the children so that she could have this important conversation in the comfort of her very own head and not be heard. She feared what the Villain in Glasses might say, and she felt that it would be best to give the newbies the bare minimum. She didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, so she would try to turn the bad news that Shiroe would certainly be giving her into news that was candid, but slightly sweetened with an ounce of hopefulness.

"Shiroe," she started.

That was as far as she could get before he cut her off, "Maryele, I'm…busy." He didn't sound mad, just stressed out and Maryele wondered what was going on in his side of Yamato. She considered, ending the discussion and leaving him alone, but then she realized that he couldn't possibly be anymore panicked than she was.

"Me too," Maryele replied, "But I need your advice."

"About what?" Shiroe asked.

"One of the beginners here is acting…strangely." She used the word 'strangely', because to blunt, she didn't know how else to put it.

"Strangely…" Shiroe whispered, "How?" He sounded interested now, as if his Half-Alv ears had perked up just a bit.

"He…won't react to anything anyone does or says, he won't move, and he won't stop clapping."

"Clapping?"

"Uh-huh."

Shiroe was silent for a brief moment as he gathered his thoughts into a figurative pile. "Are you certain that he's an Adventurer?"

"Of course…why wouldn't he be?" Maryele asked.

"His behavior sounds like that of one of the People of the Land…"

"A Person of the Land? What are you talking about? They act just like us Adventurers so…"

Maryele was cut off by an overly-eager Shiroe. "Yes, until today they did."

Maryele cocked her head, though of course he could not see it. She was yet again shocked. Her mind raced with questions, but her mouth was like an iron gate that wouldn't let any of them out.

"As you know, the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice is filled with People of the Land, and…well, I woke up to singing today."

"Singing?" Maryele asked.

"Yes, and when I went to see who it was, I found a small cluster of People of the Land, they were holding hands and singing as others danced around them…Akasuki and I have tried several times to get their attention, but they will not stop, the same goes for all of the People of the Land here. They repeat the same actions over and over again as if they've reverted back to being mere NPCs. I can speak with some of them, but they say no more than they did back when this world was just a game…" Shiroe stated.

"So then…do you think…"

"Rundelhaus must be a Person of the Land," he replied.

"So, now what should I do?" Maryele questioned.

"At this point, I think that it would be best if we Adventurers carried on as normal. The People of the Land will still perform their jobs, and they may even start giving out quests once again. We can function."

She could understand perfectly what Shiroe was telling her. This wouldn't have much effect on Adventurers, in fact, it might make life just the slightest bit easier. Adventurers and People of the Land would no longer fight or argue. People of the Land would do what they had been programmed to, and Adventurers would interact with them as if they were really still just inside a game. Though Maryele could understand this, she didn't like it. She had witnessed, like everyone, that People of the Land had undergone a change. She had seen how they could be human, how they could have lives, and personalities like anyone else. So many things just didn't feel right, and she didn't know how she would be able to deliver this bit of news to the children.

No amount of sweetening would suffice.

* * *

**So, here you are. My first fanfiction on this account, yay! (It's really like my thirtieth though…)** **Please tell me if you liked it so that I can know whether I should continue or not. If I don't continue, I'll probably just write a different Log Horizon fanfiction. This is basically me dipping my feet in the water and seeing what the fanbase for Log Horizon on here is like. **

**So please review and tell me if this is worth, finishing. Though…I have no idea where I'm going with it, but oh well I'll figure that out eventually. **

**Thanks for reading!**


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